North Carolina Coastal Plain Ditch Types Support Distinct Hydrophytic Communities

The drainage ditches of the North Carolina Coastal Plain retain ecological structural characteristics wetlands they often replace. We surveyed 32 agricultural, freeway, and forested ditch reaches across this region for hydrologic indicators, soil organic matter, plants. All showed at least some indicators had especially swampy forests. Twenty-nine hydrophytic herbaceous plant assemblages according to US Army Corps Engineers wetland delineation standards. These varied rich differed among site types, sorted influences including apparent human restriction vegetation growth, wetness, surrounding land use. results suggest that management can nudge agricultural freeway communities resemble those forests, which were typically more native. National Hydrography Dataset Wetlands Inventory excluded most sample sites, mischaracterized did include as natural waterbodies. This lack appears not arise from technical limitations; data tools resolve it are well established. ditches’ underrecognized but likely vast extent, wide ranges variability, response humans’ ability cultivate structure in these manmade aquatic ecosystems throughout beyond is already immense, with even larger potential.